The role of the humble school bus in transforming education in America

Everyone knows the yellow school bus. It's been invisible and also omnipresent for a century. Antero Garcia shows how the U.S. school bus, its form unaltered for decades, is the most substantial piece of educational technology to ever shape how schools operate. As it noisily moves young people across the country every day, the bus offers the opportunity for a necessary reexamination of what "counts" as educational technology. Particularly in light of these buses being idled in pandemic times, All through the Town questions what we take for granted and what we overlook in public schooling in America, pushing for liberatory approaches to education that extend beyond notions of school equity.

Forerunners: Ideas First is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital publications. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

"Shortchanged is a brilliant book."-The Washington Post Author and high school English teacher Annie Abrams reveals how the College Board's emphasis on standardized testing has led the AP program astray.

Every year, millions of students take Advanced Placement (AP) exams hoping to score enough points to earn college credit and save on their tuition bill. But are they getting a real college education? The College Board says that AP classes and exams make the AP program more accessible and represent a step forward for educational justice. But the program's commitment to standardized testing no longer reflects its original promise of delivering meaningful college-level curriculum to high school students.

In Shortchanged, education scholar Annie Abrams uncovers the political and pedagogical traditions that led to the program's development in the 1950s. In revealing the founders' intentions of aligning liberal arts education across high schools and colleges in ways they believed would protect democracy, Abrams questions the collateral damage caused by moving away from this vision. The AP program is the College Board's greatest source of revenue, yet its financial success belies the founding principles it has abandoned.

Instead of arguing for a wholesale restoration of the program, Shortchanged considers the nation's contemporary needs. Abrams advocates for broader access to the liberal arts through robust public funding of secondary and higher education and a dismantling of the standardized testing regime. Shortchanged illuminates a better way to offer a quality liberal arts education to high school students while preparing them for college.

Colleges sell themselves by the numbers-rankings, returns on investments, and top-ten lists-but these often mislead prospective students. What numbers should they really be paying attention to?

High school and college students are inundated by indicators and rankings supposedly designed to help them decide where to go to college and what to study once they arrive. In Metrics That Matter, coauthors Zachary Bleemer, Mukul Kumar, Aashish Mehta, Chris Muellerleile, and Christopher Newfield take a critical look at these metrics and find that many of the most popular ones are confusing, misleading, and-most importantly-easily replaceable by more helpful alternatives.

Metrics That Matter explores popular metrics used by future and current college students, with chapters focusing on colleges' return on investment, university rankings, average student debt, average wages by college major, and more. Written for students, their families, and the counselors who advise them, each chapter explains a common metric's fundamental flaws when used as a basis for making important educational decisions. The authors then draw on decades of scholarship from many academic fields to pair each metric with a concrete recommendation for alternative information, both qualitative and quantitative, that would be more useful and meaningful for students to consider. They emphasize that students should be thinking beyond solely using metrics when making college decisions-students should focus on their intellectual and academic education goals, not just vocational or monetary ones.

Students' reliance on certain metrics has skewed universities away from providing high-quality education and distorted the perception of higher education's purpose, overemphasizing private financial returns over the broader economic and social benefits of universities. This book aims to facilitate important student decisions while reorienting public perceptions of higher education's values and how universities should measure their own success.

Now in its fifth edition! An indispensable reference for anyone concerned with the future of American colleges and universities.

Whether it is advances in information technology, organized social movements, or racial inequality and social class stratification, higher education serves as a lens for examining significant issues within American society. First published in 1998, American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century offers a comprehensive introduction to the complex realities of American higher education, including its history, financing, governance, and relationship with the states and federal government.

This thoroughly revised edition brings the classic volume completely up to date. Each chapter has been rewritten to address major recent issues in higher education, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the movement for racial justice, and turmoil in the for-profit sector. Three entirely new chapters cover broad-access colleges, race and racism, and organized social movements. Reflecting on the implications of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity within higher education, the book also grapples with growing concerns about the responsiveness and future of the academy.

No other book covers such wide-ranging issues under the broader theme of higher education's relationship to society. Highly acclaimed and incorporating cutting-edge research, American Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century is now more useful and engaging than ever.

Contributors: Michael N. Bastedo, Philip G. Altbach, Patricia J. Gumport, Peter Riley Bahr, Joy Blanchard, Julia Brickfield, Michael Brown, Katherine S. Cho, Daniela Conde, Charles H. F. Davis III, Hans de Wit, Peter D. Eckel, Martin Finkelstein, Denisa Gandara, Liliana M. Garces, Roger L. Geiger, Leslie D. Gonzales, Jillian Leigh Gross, Jessica Harris, Nicholas Hillman, Julia Rose Karpicz, Robert Kelchen, Adrianna Kezar, Lisa R. Lattuca, Demetri Morgan, Rebecca Natow, Anna Neumann, Audrey Peek, Laura W. Perna, Gary Rhoades, Tykeia N. Robinson, Roman Ruiz, Wonson Ryu, Lauren T. Schudde, Jeffrey C. Sun, David A. Tandberg

Provocative essays on real-world ethical questions from the world's most influential philosopher

Peter Singer is often described as the world's most influential philosopher. He is also one of its most controversial. The author of important books such as Animal Liberation, Practical Ethics, Rethinking Life and Death, and The Life You Can Save, he helped launch the animal rights and effective altruism movements and contributed to the development of bioethics. Now, in Ethics in the Real World, Singer shows that he is also a master at dissecting important current events in a few hundred words.

In this book of brief essays, he applies his controversial ways of thinking to issues like climate change, extreme poverty, animals, abortion, euthanasia, human genetic selection, sports doping, the sale of kidneys, the ethics of high-priced art, and ways of increasing happiness. Singer asks whether chimpanzees are people, smoking should be outlawed, or consensual sex between adult siblings should be decriminalized, and he reiterates his case against the idea that all human life is sacred, applying his arguments to some recent cases in the news. In addition, he explores, in an easily accessible form, some of the deepest philosophical questions, such as whether anything really matters and what is the value of the pale blue dot that is our planet. The collection also includes some more personal reflections, like Singer's thoughts on one of his favorite activities, surfing, and an unusual suggestion for starting a family conversation over a holiday feast.

Provocative and original, these essays will challenge-and possibly change-your beliefs about a wide range of real-world ethical questions.

From contributors to The Conversation, a look at gender diversity in the twenty-first century and the intricate and intersecting challenges faced by trans and nonbinary people.

With media amplifying the voices of anti-trans legislators and critics, it is important to turn to the stories, research, and expertise of trans and nonbinary people in order to understand the reality of their experiences. In The Conversation on Gender Diversity, editor Jules Gill-Peterson assembles essential essays from The Conversation U.S. by experts on gender diversity. The essays guide readers through seldom-covered aspects of transgender history and present an overview of the social and political barriers that disenfranchise trans people and attempt to remove them from public life.

As these essays collectively show, trans and nonbinary people may be forced to be the face of gender and its diversity, but the cultural, political, and social realities of gender connect-and subject-everyone. Despite these challenges, there is an immense culture of love and support across the queer community that is bolstered by activists and allies working against transphobic attacks. Trans and gender-diverse youth are growing up in a world filled with ever-increasing hurdles and rising danger, even with the contemporary public recognition of trans life in culture and media. But they are not facing these challenges alone.

The Critical Conversations series collects relevant essays from top scholars on timely topics, including water, biotechnology, gender diversity, gun culture, and more, originally published on the independent news site The Conversation U.S.

Contributors: Robert L. Abreu, Catherine Armstrong, Stacy Branham, Christopher Carpenter, L. F. Carver, Mandy Coles, Arin Collin, George B. Cunningham, Avery Dame-Griff, Jules Gill-Peterson, Abbie Goldberg, Gilbert Gonzales, Frances Grimstad, Foad Hamidi, Elizabeth Heineman, Glen Hosking, Bethany Grace Howe, Jay A. Irwin, Shanna K. Kattari, Kacie Kidd, Terry Kogan, Vanessa LoBue, Gabriel Lockett, Megan K. Maas, Julie Manning Magid, Em Matsuno, Tey Meadow, Kyl Myers, Madeleine Pape, Ruth Pearce, Jae A. Puckett, Samantha G. Rosenthal, Morgan Klaus Scheuerman, Elizabeth A. Sharrow, Carl Sheperis, Donna Sheperis, stef m. shuster, Jules Sostre, Ryan Storr, Carl Streed, Diana M. Tordoff, Travers

Highlighting the nine guiding principles to help women succeed in their academic careers.

Although there are more women in higher education than ever before-and increasingly in leadership positions-their paths to success are more difficult than those paved for men. Nine Guiding Principles for Women in Higher Education is a concise and accessible resource aimed at helping women faculty succeed in their academic careers. Karyn Z. Sproles offers guidance, humor, and courage to women in higher education, paying particular attention to those with children and women of color.

Based on a wide range of scholarship, stories from dozens of women, and Sproles's personal experience from 34 years as a professor, department chair, and dean, Nine Principles offers advice on
* facing down impostor syndrome,
* avoiding social isolation,
* building networks of mentors,
* preparing for tenure,
* balancing teaching, scholarship, and home life,

and more.

Practical and visionary, the nine principles guide readers from the beginning of their careers through to leadership roles. Women in academia-including adjuncts, graduate students, and tenure-track professors-will find the tools they need to balance success with the rest of life's demands. Each chapter ends with a quick list of advice for easy reference and suggested reading to explore more on the chapter's topic. Rounding out the book is a workshop section that can be used by individual readers or as a guide for conducting workshops and faculty development programs.

The fascinating and controversial history of personality disorders.

The concept of personality disorders rose to prominence in the early twentieth century and has consistently caused controversy among psychiatrists, psychologists, and social scientists. In Personality Disorders, Allan V. Horwitz traces the evolution of defining these disorders and the historical dilemmas of attempting to mold them into traditional medical conceptions of disorder.

Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, as a guide, Horwitz explores the group of conditions that make up personality disorders and considers when they have been tied to or separated from other types of mental illnesses. He also examines how these disorders have often entailed negative moral and cultural evaluations more focused on perceived social deviance than on actual medical conditions.

Deep conflicts exist in a variety of disciplines in determining the nature of these disorders. During the twentieth century, a particularly sharp division arose between researchers who study personality disorders and the clinicians who treat them. Because researchers strive to develop general laws and clinicians attempt to understand individuals' specific problems, their values, methods, and goals often conflict. Synthesizing historical and contemporary scholarship, Horwitz examines controversies over the definitions and diagnoses of personality disorders and how the perception of these illnesses has changed over time.